In KDE, what controls which virtual desktop (workspace) an application will run in? Sometimes I launch Firefox or another app and it runs in a different workspace than where I launched it - so I have to go search for it. Annoying. There must be a switch or config file someplace.

Do a right click at your active window top border (by the name should be fine). A menu with desktops should appear somewhere, there you can select in which desktop you want your window to be. KDE keeps track of where a window is open (in which desktop) and thats how it choose where to open it in the future.

You can one possible cause of your problem by clicking the button at the top left of your screen and then clicking To Desktop. Check to see if one of the desktops has been permanently selected for that application.

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Steve Stites

I've done that as I locate where the window is and move it to where it should be. You'd think that I only should have to do it once per wandering window. Isn't there some default somewhere that says something like "unless I tell you otherwise, always load whatever I run in the workspace where I initiate it"???

What KDE version are you using? (maybe theres a bug, dunno), cause I only have to tell it once. A long time ago I set Amarok to show up in my 2nd virtual desktop (codename Chillroom) and still shows up there. Also I have KDevelop and other development apps in my 3rd (Kitchen) and again they always show up there. Though a fellow KDE headhoncho just told me that from time to time they don't work cause it just resets, outta whim.

I'm running Red Hat 9 and KDE 3.1-13. I just logged out and back in again and out of the 14 applications that I launched, 12 of them ran in a workspace other than the one that I launched them from (BTW, I have 12 workspaces). Prior to logout, all of these same apps were running in the appropriate workspace. SO - now what? Moving the app to the appropriate workspace via right-click on the upper left and selecting the desired workspace will work, but it does not set the "default behavior" for that app. I also tried the "Store window settings" button but it didn't seem to do anything. Wonder where it "stores" stuff? Could this be an issue with Firefox or Thunderbird? Several invocations of both applications are running, each in a different workspace as a different user.

Holy tux! That sounds like a virtual desktop inferno... And well...RH9 and KDE 3.1 thats pretty outdated, wouldn't know if some of the settings Im working with existed back then. Probably not. Also maybe the virtual desktop has gotten a lot better than what it was in those days.

Yeah, RH9 is pretty long in the tooth, but it is also pretty stable.

After some googling, I think I may have stumbled on something. The threads I read indicate that KDE saves setings for a workspace application based on the "title" of the window (or name of the application, perhaps?) that would explain the eratic behavior of multiple invocation of the same app - in this case Firefox. Now, the trick is to find out where stuff is saved and clear it so things always run in the "current" workspace - OR - just shut up and move things where I want them after I find 'em.